Video transcript

DR. BETH HARRIS: Here we are
at the Basilica of Saint Denis. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: The
birthplace of the Gothic. DR. BETH HARRIS:
Thanks to Suger, who was the abbot in the first
half of the 12th century. This church is
incredibly important because it's the burial
place of the royal family. since Suger himself was also
a advisor to the royal family. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We're
standing in the choir. And light is pouring
in the windows. DR. BETH HARRIS: So
the choir is the space behind the altar of the church. And the ambulatory
is the aisle that would take one behind the altar. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
Actually, it's taking us around
behind the altar. DR. BETH HARRIS: Now, Suger
completed the ambulatory and also the facade
of the church. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And none
of this was new construction. There had been a
ninth-century church here. And Suger felt that it was
inadequate as the burial place of the kings. At this historical moment,
the kings of France only really controlled
the Isle de France, that is, the area
immediately around Paris. But this was a time when the
king's power was expanding. And Suger really wanted to
create an architectural style that would express the
growing power of the monarch. Now, in the history of
Western church architecture, the way that this
would generally work is you would have an ambulatory
that would move around the back of the altar. And that would allow
pilgrims to stop at each of these small,
radiating chapels, that is, these small rooms
that would contain relics. DR. BETH HARRIS: In the past
during the Romanesque period, these chapels would be
literally separate rooms with walls around them. And Suger's idea was
instead to open up the space and to allow light to flood in. And that's exactly
how this looks. And it must have
looked so different than anything anyone
had seen before. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
Instead of this looking like a set of
walls that are pierced by windows-- and in the
Romanesque, relatively small windows-- instead,
he's figured out how to engineer this
structure in stone. So that the walls can basically
disappear and be replaced by glass-- colored
glass-- that lets this brilliant, luminous
color into the space. So let's talk about
two things-- how he did this, and second
of all, why he did this. DR. BETH HARRIS: Which
one should we do first? DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Well, let's
talk about how he did it. If you look above us,
there's this complex web of interlocking
pointed vaulting. DR. BETH HARRIS: Pointed
arches are really key here, because for one
thing, you can cover spaces of different
shapes and sizes. Perhaps most importantly,
a pointed arch doesn't push so much
out as it does it down. And because of
that, the architect didn't need to
build thick walls. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: A
traditional Roman arch generally has to be placed on
quite heavy walls, because it really
does push outward. It splays. What the pointed
arch does is it tends to take the weight
of the vaulting and push it more straight down,
so that the weight doesn't have to be buttressed
from the side. DR. BETH HARRIS: Looking
up at those ribs, we have a sense of a
pull toward the vertical. And all of these
ribs in this vaulting rests on these thin columns. So there's a real sense
of elegance and openness to this space. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And
it's so radically different from the Romanesque that came
before, which felt so solid and where your eye was always
drawn around that rounded arch back down. And you felt the
sense of gravity. You felt a sort of rootedness
with the Romanesque. And it is so different here. You have to remember the church
itself, any consecrated church, is an expression of
the holy Jerusalem. It is Heaven on Earth. And so the idea is how
can one transport us to a more heavenly place,
to a more spiritual place. Abbot Suger believed
that light could do this. DR. BETH HARRIS:
Suger thought he was reading the
writing of Saint Denis, of the patron saint
of this church. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Instead,
he was reading a philosopher from the sixth century. But the important
part is he took this notion of the divinity
of light from that writing and made that practical
and applicable within an architectural setting. DR. BETH HARRIS: Right. That writing that he
thought was by Saint Denis talked about how light was
connected to the divine. So what Suger wanted was
to open up those walls and allow in the light that
would allow a type of thinking on the part of the visitors
where they would move from the contemplation
of the light to God. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: This was
a radical and new notion and actually flew in the face
of other theological theories of the time. And if you think
about the ideas that are being established by Saint
Bernard of Clairvaux, who's saying, we have to get
rid of all the decorative. We have to get rid of everything
that will distract us. Suger is moving in the
other direction and saying, no, in fact. We can transport people. DR. BETH HARRIS: That the
visual is not a distraction but a way of transporting
us to the divine. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
I have to say that I think Suger was
incredibly successful. This is startlingly beautiful. And I feel transported.